Incidents at St Francis Bay and at Storms River, Tsitisikamma

NSRI St Francis Bay & NSRI Storms River crew were activated following two incidents reported.

ST FRANCIS BAY:

Garth Shamley, NSRI St Francis Bay duty coxswain, said:

NSRI St Francis Bay duty crew were activated following multiple eye-witness reports of red distress flares sighted out to sea between Cape St Francis and Otters Landing.

The sea rescue craft JLT Rescuer was launched and NSRI St Francis Bay duty controllers alerted the NSRI EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) and Telkom Maritime Radio Services.

MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre) were alerted.

On our NSRI sea rescue craft arriving off-shore of Shark Point we found the private fishing boat Phat Cat towing a capsized craft.

The casualties of the capsized boat, 5 local men from Jeffreys Bay, aged in their 20's and 30's, were all accounted for and they were safe onboard the private fishing boat Phat Cat.

It was determined that the casualty boat, Legacy, from Jeffreys Bay, had hit an unidentified submerged object while they were underway causing their boat to be holed and their boat started taking water. The crew were bailing water when their boat capsized throwing all 5 men into the water. The skipper has told NSRI that the whole incident happened in minutes.

The skipper was able to use the emergency capsize kit to set off 4 red distress flares in relays.

The crew onboard Phat Cat, friends of the skipper and crew of the casualty boat Legacy, were in sight of the casualty boat at the time. When they saw the first red distress flare they immediately reacted to help and on arriving on the scene minutes later they rescued all 5 men onto their boat and took the capsized boat under tow.

The NSRI sea rescue craft took over the tow of Legacy from Phat Cat while the casualty skipper and one casualty crewman were transferred onto our sea rescue craft.

The remaining 3 casualty crew were taken ashore safely onboard Phat Cat.

The skipper and crew of Phat Cat are commended for their swift reaction and for their assistance that contributed to preventing a disaster.

The commercial fishing boat Rogue I, skippered by a family member of the casualty skipper, arrived on the scene and assisted NSRI to right the casualty boat and once the casualty boat was righted NSRI continued to tow the casualty boat until she was mostly drained of water.

Rogue I then took the casualty skipper and his crewman onto their boat and also took over the tow of the casualty boat from NSRI and they towed the boat to Jeffreys Bay where the boat was recovered onto her trailer.

No one was injured.

After Rogue I took over the tow of Legacy NSRI accompanied them until we were confident that the situation was under control and NSRI then returned to base.

Rogue I, skippered by the uncle of the skipper of the casualty boat, and his crew, are commended for their assistance.

STORMS RIVER:

Lodewyk van Rensburg, NSRI Oyster Bay station commander, said:

NSRI Storms River duty crew were activated after off duty NSRI Storms River crew, who are guides with Untouched Adventures, reported a 32 year old Belgian female suffering a medical complaint during an Untouched Adventures river kayaking trip approximately 2 kilometres up river from the Storms River Mouth, Tsitsikamma.

The guides had initiated medical care, assisted by a doctor who happened to be on the kayaking trip, while requesting their NSRI duty crew to launch and respond with the NSRI Storms River rescue craft and to activate an ambulance.

Private Care ambulance services were activated while the NSRI duty crew reached them on the scene.

The patient, accompanied by the doctor, was brought to the slipway at Storms River Mouth aboard the sea rescue craft where they were met by Private Care ambulance services paramedics and the patient was transported to hospital by ambulance in a stable condition for further medical care.